Cheltenham Focus

During the close season we will look at our opponents in League 2 this season.

Last Season: National League champions

Nickname: The Robins

Ground: Whaddon Road

Capacity: 7,066

Last Season:

Cheltenham stormed to the National League title last season after dropping out of the Football League in the 2014/15 season. They finished 12 points clear of second-placed Forest Green Rovers.

They accumulated 101 points, and finished the top scorers in the league, as well as conceding the least number of goals as well. They also topped the charts for the most wins in the division and lost the fewest amount of games too.

Manager: Gary Johnson

The experienced Johnson arrived at the club for the final seven games of the 2014/15 campaign but couldn’t prevent the side dropping out of League Two.

It was a busy summer for the mew boss, who signed no fewer than 18 players to create a re-shaped squad.

Johnson has enjoyed spells as a manager with Cambridge United, Yeovil Town, Bristol City, Peterborough United and Northampton before taking charge of the Robins.

Key man: Dan Holman

Holman began the season on loan at Woking from Colchester United before moving to Cheltenham Town in January 2016 - at the time of his move he had notched 14 goals for Woking.

He went on to reach 30 goals for the season to earn himself the Golden Boot award as he netted 16 times in 18 games for the Robins as they stormed to the title in style.

Press View: James Young - Gloucestershire Echo

Last Season:

Possibly the best season in the club’s history – because it came after what was an unmitigated disaster the year before.

Relegation from the Football League can break clubs and no team had bounced back as champions for more than a quarter of a century – Darlington were the last team to do it at the end of the 1980s.

But a brand new squad – there were 11 debutants in the starting XI on the opening day of the season - took the league by storm and cantered home 12 points ahead of the field with 101 points to their name.

Cheltenham Town have achieved promotion before, they have won leagues before, but never with the stakes so high. The club lost £600,000 on relegation, they stood to lose £300,000 more if they didn’t bounce back. It was promotion or bust and the team delivered, in style.

Star man of the side…

There are stars of the side: Striker Danny Wright bagged 25 goals in all competitions and was rightly player-of-the year. Fellow hitman Dan Holman arrived in January and bagged 16 goals in 18 games as the title was secured and all around the side there are men who produced for the cause.

But the undoubted star is the man in the dugout. Gary Johnson had a mammoth task when he was appointed. He had to get rid of a bunch of disinterested players and bring in a new group, and one that was capable of winning the league.

He did that with a budget that was nowhere near the top in the National League. Without any single player the Robins could probably have got promotion, without Johnson they had no chance.

Prediction for next season …

Optimism abounds among Robins fans for their return to League Two.

All of last year’s squad – with only one exception – has signed up for the new season and if Johnson can get a few key loan signings back to the club and make one or two shrewd additions a top 10 place is well within their grasp.

Bristol Rovers proved last season – and countless others have done in recent years – that promotion into the League can lead to further steps up the pyramid, so the play-offs has to be the aim.

However, I imagine that the manager is aiming much higher than the top seven.